Resident Evil: Resurrection

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“Dear God, man,” Dr Abel said softly while dabbing a wet cotton ball gently at Carlos’ forehead. “If I didn’t know better, I would say that this wound on your head is from a gunshot… but that’s impossible, with the steady rate at which it’s healing… a gunshot would never close up this well. What on Earth did you run into that could strike such a blow?”

As expected, Carlos didn’t reply. The man wasn’t really a talker, it seemed. “Well, it’s looking better than when we found you at least. We’ll be flying out first thing tomorrow morning where you can get all the proper care you need in my offices. Is there anything I can get for you? You haven’t touched your food and you haven’t slept since we landed. I’ve apologized for the way in which you were handled but they were simple precautions until you passed the twelve hour mark without changing into one of those creatures outside. We have none of the technology at such a basic soldier post to do proper tests for infection and time is the only surefire test of infection in a man when you have no tools.” He sat back in his chair and sighed while staring at the man. The funding and support for his wild goose hunt in America had dried out rapidly with still no Alice, and after only a few short days of searching, but this was almost as good. Whatever keys to survival that Carlos held, Dr Abel would research so that he could apply them to the survivors in his Hive and possibly give humanity a little leg up on the race against extinction. “Is the food not to your taste? I can try to get you something else, I just really wish you would settle yourself and relax… or at least eat something. Nobody here is planning to harm you – indeed, we’re all in admiration of you. Won’t you have just a mouthful of water?”

That stare… that one eyed stare… it was still fixed directly upon the doctor and it still made pinpricks race up and down his spine just as easily as it had the first time; there was no getting used to it. “Who knows?” Dr Abel continued with a little nervousness pinching his voice. “Maybe we can look into that eye of yours when we get to London and you’ll be able to use both in due time?” The offer died in the air as he cleared his throat and packed up his little medical kit. “Yes. Well… please rest tonight, we have a long flight tomorrow. If you need anything, you can tell any man here to call for me; I’ll come immediately.”

Dr Abel stood and left the small tent, closing the flap behind him and allowing Carlos solitude now that he’d had a second checkup to look after his wounds. He looked around briefly before spotting the man he was looking for. “Officer Rankin, is it really necessary for our guest to be shackled at the ankles? He has done nothing to warrant continued restraint – in fact, just the opposite, he is perfectly docile and unmoving, almost worryingly so. I believe this prolonged imprisonment may be harming what little strength of will he has left.”

“Apologies Dr Abel,” the Officer said without the least bit of sincerity in his voice, “orders are orders. He’s been out there with the walkers, and even though it’s been twelve hours, we just can’t have any mistakes around here. Mistakes lead to dead men. It’s already unusual enough to be keeping him around, it would downright spook a lot of the men out here if they saw him walking round freely. When you have him on your own soil, you can do with him what you please, but as long as he’s on my base he gets chained up as though he could turn at any second and no amount of docility on his behalf will change that, are we clear?”

The doctor gave Officer Rankin a hard English stare that would have withered any man back in the UK, but it didn’t seem to have quite the effect on American soldiers who couldn’t care less what kind of stares you gave or what you thought of them. Instead, it earned him a grunt from the Officer, before the man turned his back on Dr Abel and went into the chow tent for his dinner. The doctor folded his arms over his chest and glanced over at Carlos’ tent with a furrowed brow. His heart went out to the STARS member, and the man had his admiration too, but no amount of clout or veiled threats would help here on this soil and Rankin had underlined that point several times with that last display. He shook his head and marched away as well, going into his own tent and zipping the front shut with attitude, in his own tiny, polite English little way of trying to show his anger… unsuccessfully.

“I’ll be returning to you soon, Violet,” Dr Abel said as he sat down in a rickety chair before the small table set up with a laptop computer and satellite transmitter upon it. “Unfortunately I don’t have Alice, but I did find a young man in the mountains, a survivor. You and I will have our hands full for a while, trying to treat him and bring him back to humanity from his terror-hardened state, so perhaps its best we forget this fleeting Alice fancy for now and focus on him instead.”

“Whatever you wish, Dr Abel,” Violet replied over the speakers of his laptop. “I’ll have rooms prepared in the lab for your guest to stay. Shall I alert the Hive Rations Committee as to your guest joining us?”

“No,” the doctor replied. “I hardly need the amounts of food and water they portion out to me, our guest can simply pick up the slack where I leave off. Besides, we don’t need more curious eyes peering in on us than we already do, Violet. Our guest is not a… social man, and probably wouldn’t take well to being made a spectacle of.”

“I understand.” Violet brought up a few programs on Dr Abel’s computer. “In the meantime, you have several messages from the other Doctors from the China Hive, and one from Mrs. Abel.”

“She’s not Mrs. Abel any more,” the doctor clipped out curtly.

There was a pause, and he knew that if Violet’s hologram was standing beside him right now she would be giving him a stare that told him his anger was projected at the wrong being. “You never completed the divorce; under the eyes of the law -”

“Forget the law for just a moment and consider the fact that we haven’t been on speaking terms for the last several years and she’s only trying to contact me now because she needs something.” When Violet didn’t reply, he had to check himself and try to remind himself that this was a computer he was talking to, not a person, and in the end Violet really didn’t care what the doctor addressed his wife as or why. “I’ll read it all in the morning,” he said suddenly, while pushing himself to stand. “For now, I’m going to sleep, it has been a long day. I’ll see you shortly, Violet.”

“Goodnight, Dr Abel.”

“Goodnight, Violet.”

His computer screen went black and the good doctor eased himself onto his cot, pulling the blankets over himself and trying to quash all thoughts about his newfound treasure and curious little fantasies about just what Carlos had seen in his time on the mountainside.

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As always, please read and review! Let me know what you think so far! Thanks guys ~Flawed Sapphire